TL;DR:
- We’ve never set prices - the seller always has/will set prices (and gets every penny)
- Previously, we marked up the seller’s price by 5% to display an “all-in” $/lb, which included the cost of payment processing + our platform fee
- We no longer mark up the seller’s price
- There are NO new fees but all fees are now transparently itemized instead of just displaying a marked-up, “all-in” price per pound
- Now you can save money if you pay by ACH
When we launched The Lupulin Exchange in 2014, we didn’t know much about the payment processing industry and there weren’t many options available for complicated “split” or “embedded” payments for marketplace applications like ours. Wepay was one of only a few companies that could provide the type of integration we needed, but a lot has changed since then. In January of this year, we began migrating sellers off of wepay and that transition was complete on Feb 1. Our new configuration is much better/simpler/easier for sellers because they no longer need to create an account with a 3rd party and they now have the option for faster payouts. Now, sellers can simply enter their bank info and view an itemization of payouts directly from our platform. The overhauled approach to payment processing also allows for greater flexibility and more choice for buyers.
Since payment processing was complicated and we had to bring in at least some money somehow, we originally launched LEx with the Keep It Simple, Stupid approach of marking up the seller’s price by 5% and displaying an “all-in” $/lb price. Payment processing was included in that price, and whatever was leftover became the revenue required to keep the lights on at LEx. While this seemed simple to us, plenty of folks found it confusing and it lacked both transparency and flexibility. Now there’s a better way…
All prices on LEx are now 5% lower than they were yesterday! The price you see now is exactly what each seller is asking, and they’ll get every penny. During checkout, buyers now see our platform fee on every transaction - that’s the revenue that keeps LEx operational. Buyers then have a choice: pay by ACH for only 50 cents (no matter the size of the transaction) or pay via credit/debit card for the going rate to process payments on the card network:
Paying by ACH will result in substantial savings for large transactions but ACH payments don’t process as quickly as credit cards.
We’ve got more enhancements in the works, but for now, I hope you’ll be pleased with the new level of transparency, itemization, and choice during checkout. That’s what I want as a buyer and I hope it’s what you want too. Please use the poll below to LMK!
- I think this sounds great/is a big improvement!
- I don’t really care.
- I think this is a terrible idea - change it back to how it was!